Can Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity Be Fully Reframed in Terms of Process Instantiation?

Can Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity Be Fully Reframed in Terms of Process Instantiation?

The short answer: Yes—but doing so requires a fundamental shift in how we interpret both theories.

If process instantiation is primary, then both quantum mechanics and general relativity describe how different types of processes instantiate space and time under different conditions.

---

1. General Relativity as Process Instantiation Constraints

• GR assumes spacetime is a continuous geometric structure that curves in response to mass-energy.
• In the process instantiation model, instead of thinking of curved spacetime, we say:
  • Mass-energy alters the conditions under which spatial and temporal intervals are instantiated.
  • Geodesics describe how process unfolding is constrained, not how objects move through a curved manifold.
  • Gravitational time dilation and length contraction are effects of how processes instantiate time and space differently depending on their relation to mass-energy.

🚩 Key Advantage:

• This removes the paradox of treating spacetime as both an abstract coordinate system and a physically real entity.
• It also aligns with the relational view of space and time in quantum mechanics (next section).

---

2. Quantum Mechanics as Potential-to-Instance Transitions

• Quantum mechanics already treats reality as potentialities that become instantiated upon measurement.
• Instead of thinking of wavefunction collapse as an abstract mathematical process, we say:
  • The wavefunction describes potential process instantiations.
  • Measurement is the point at which one of those potential processes is instantiated as an actual event.
  • Entanglement doesn’t mean “spooky action at a distance” but rather that the instantiation of one process constrains the instantiation of another, no matter their separation.

🚩 Key Advantage:

• The problem of wavefunction collapse is reframed:
  • Instead of needing an external observer, potential remains potential until a process is instantiated.
  • This aligns with the observer-dependent nature of time in relativity.

---

3. Where They Meet: Gravity as a Process Constraint

• If space and time are instantiated by processes, then gravity isn’t a force or curvature but a constraint on how process instantiation unfolds.
• The issue with quantum gravity is that we try to quantise spacetime itself, but if spacetime is not a fundamental thing—only a description of process relations—then the problem disappears.
• Instead, gravity should be understood as emergent from the constraints governing the instantiation of processes.

🚩 Key Implication:

• Quantum mechanics and relativity don’t contradict each other—they describe the same underlying reality from different process regimes:
  • Quantum mechanics deals with local process instantiation and its probabilistic nature.
  • General relativity describes how large-scale mass-energy constraints affect process instantiation globally.

---

4. The Next Step: Process-Based Theory of Everything?

• If both relativity and QM emerge from rules governing how processes instantiate, then a unification theory should focus on:
  • What determines how potentialities instantiate into actual processes?
  • What governs the constraints on process instantiation in different regimes?
• This might lead to a more fundamental theory where neither space, time, nor particles are primary—only process instantiation and its constraints.

---

Final Thought: What We Gain by Reframing

✔ No need to treat spacetime as a physical entity—only as a description of process relations.

✔ No need to force quantum mechanics into a spacetime framework—it’s already about potential-to-instance transitions.

✔ Gravity is no longer a "force" in the Newtonian sense or a "fabric" in the Einsteinian sense—it’s the constraint on how processes instantiate in relation to mass-energy.